


and you'll make me smile (by really getting into the swing)

by lanyon



Category: Captain America (2011), Marvel (Movies)
Genre: Ballet, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-01
Updated: 2012-07-01
Packaged: 2017-11-08 23:54:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/448946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lanyon/pseuds/lanyon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers is Principal at the Royal Ballet but he's about to have his feet stepped on by James Barnes, a Russian-trained dancer who owes him some explanations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and you'll make me smile (by really getting into the swing)

**Author's Note:**

> +What I know about ballet is rather negligible so I've tried not to display my ignorance too woefully. It's mostly a case of _I like what I know..._  
>  +Naturally, the _Swan Lake_ in this story is largely based on Matthew Bourne's production.  
>  +This is for two Ellies and a Sarah.  
> + **Warnings** for epic, epic silliness.
> 
> +Title from the Kings of Convenience - _I'd Rather Dance With You_

“They come over here, they steal our jobs.” Steve’s muttering now, into his pint glass.

“Steve. Steven, darling,” says Peggy. She puts her hand on his forearm. “You’re American.”

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

“You’re American and this is London and somewhere, in a pub very much like this, there’s a poor British boy weeping into his Pimms because you came along and stole his position as principal.”

“Damned Russians-”

“How positively xenophobic of you-”

“What’s so great about the Bolshoi-?”

“What’s that about bolshy, dearest?”

+

It’s 2013 and _Swan Lake_ has left Sadler’s Wells and there’s a Russian dancing the White Swan and von Rothbart in Covent Garden and pigs might fly any day now.

+

It’s all over the newspapers, of course. James Barnes isn’t actually Russian but he’s the Bolshoi’s principal and has been for four years now. He and Natalia Romanova have taken the world by storm, or so it is claimed. 

The Bolshoi’s summer tours have never coincided with the Royal Ballet’s but now they are on a collision course and their enigmatic leads are being forced to share a stage. 

+

“Play nice, Steve,” says Peggy. 

“I always play nice.”

The depressing thing is that that’s entirely true. 

Steve opens the door for Peggy and it’s one of the smaller rehearsal spaces and there’s James Barnes, dressed in jeans and leaning against the barre as he talks animatedly to Morita and Dugan. Peggy can feel Steve bristling beside her.

“No sign of Danvers yet?” she asks. 

“Not yet,” says Barnes, whose accent is peculiar, a blend of Moscow and Brooklyn and then his eyes light on Steve and his expression changes. 

“Rogers,” he says, reaching out his hand.

For a horrifying moment, Peggy thinks that Steve’s actually going to refuse to shake Barnes’ hand. What actually happens is worse.

“Bucky.” Steve’s voice is a whisper and then he’s pulling back his arm and punching Barnes square in the face. 

“I say,” says Falsworth. “I hadn’t realised we were taking this quite so badly.”

“Not ‘we’,” says Peggy and she reaches out to pull Barnes to his feet. “Steve.”

“Gentlemen,” says Danvers, sweeping into the room with Hill right behind her. “I see you’ve met - ”

+  
 **  
Bust-up in first co-rehearsal: Is Bolshoi collaboration doomed before it begins?**  
 _Insiders report a scuffle between the Royal Ballet’s darling, Steve Rogers, and guest Principal, James Barnes of the Bolshoi and it’s emerged that the two knew each other as youngsters in Brooklyn._

+

That night, as Peggy wraps Steve’s hand, not that he deserves an ounce of pity, she asks him about what happened. 

He doesn’t want to answer but she puts her fingers on his jaw and guides his face so that he has to look at her. He sighs.

“I knew Buck- I knew Barnes in Brooklyn.” Steve nearly smiles. “We were the only boys taking ballet. I did it ‘cause I was scrawny as hell and my mom thought all the sports were too rough. Barnes did it ‘cause he was too rough for other sports.” He rubs his face. “We were - we were friends. Right up till I came to London.”

“Was he jealous?”

“What-? Oh, no. No. He was cool about it. He was going to Moscow.” Steve shrugs. 

“So?” Peggy starts putting away their first aid kit, which mostly consists of ice-packs and muscle rubs and support bandages. “What happened?”

“It was our last summer together. We were, like, seventeen? World was ours and we decided to go traveling together, in Europe.” Steve drops his hand and his fingers circle Peggy’s wrist. “We were on a train through the Alps and there was this girl. Really gorgeous red-head, around our age.”

“Please don’t tell me that you boys fell out over a woman?” asks Peggy. She’s appalled. “How old-fashioned.”

“We didn’t exactly fall out,” says Steve. “Barnes got off the train with her and I didn’t see him again.” 

Peggy winces. It’s all one can do in this situation.

“Next thing I hear, Buck- Barnes and the girl are the best dancers the Bolshoi’s produced in years.”

“And you’re stuck in old Blighty with me, you poor dear.”

+

“Where is your better half?”

“Don’t you read the papers at all, old boy?” Barnes’ fake British accent is worse than Steve’s. “Natalia is in New York, preparing to dance up a storm in Romeo and Juliet. Apparently, Clint Barton’s Romeo is the best thing to have come out of the American Ballet Theatre since you and I departed the scene.”

“Why did we leave again?” 

“Have tights, will travel. Your words, not mine.”

“I’m sorry I punched you.”

“No, you’re not. I’m sorry I bailed.”

“Sure you are. You always were a sucker for a pretty face.” 

“That shitty logic doesn’t explain why I left you.”

“Why did you leave me, Buck?”

Turns out that James Barnes doesn’t have an answer for everything.

+

In spite of her youth, Peggy is going to dance the part of Steve’s mother.

“And, for our next trick, we’re gonna put on a production of Oedipus,” mutters Dugan. 

+

The thing is, or one of the many things, is that Barnes is amazing. He is phenomenal. Steve does his best not to watch except that he must. Barnes is magnetic.

Peggy sees it, too, when she’s not busy being seduced by young von Rothbart and swooning into Bucky’s arms. 

“So, you’ve known Steve a while, huh?” Barnes asks. 

Peggy looks up at him and her lips curve. “Yes,” she says. “Biblically.”

She lets out an unholy shriek when Barnes pretends to drop her but it’s nothing in comparison to Carol’s roar. 

“I have had it up to here with today,” she says and she looks like she wants to break her clipboard over Barnes’ head. “Hill has already made half of the Corps cry and I’ve a good mind to set her on you, too, Barnes. Do not let her see you mangling her choreography.”

+

The bruise around Bucky’s eye is fading. It’s an unpleasant yellow now. It should be gone long before Opening Night.

+

“I have my doubts.”

“C’mon, pal. Have a little faith. I’ve lifted you before.”

“Yeah. I was thirteen and a fraction of the size I am now.”

“Don’t I know it? C’mon, sweet prince. Let flights of swans something something -”

“Christ, you’re still full of shit, Bucky.”

“Some people call it charm.” 

“Are you sure you can - I mean. I read about your injury. Your arm’s okay, right?”

Barnes lifts up his left arm. “Good as new. C’mon, you punk. Wanna see your twinkle-toes best here.”

+

Sometimes, Steve really hates Bucky Barnes. 

Peggy rubs his back when they curl up on the couch together. 

She’s a smart woman, is Peggy Carter.

+

“How are rehearsals going, Ms Danvers?”

Carol’s only response is to laugh. “It’s like a goddamned holiday camp in there. What do you want me to say?”

+

They have some good days. They have some great days. The members of the Corps don’t displease Hill and Danvers thinks that the chemistry between Steve and Barnes is going to be particularly panty-moistening. 

“She’s a dude,” says Barnes, in the pub. “She’s a dude in the body of a really hot woman.”

“Or,” says Peggy, “She’s a woman who deserves a little more respect, Barnes.”

“Oh, I respect her plenty, doll.”

“Then you can stop talking like you escaped from some gangster movie and buy her a drink.”

They’re in an Italian-run place in Soho and the lights are low and the music is loud and some of the Corps are using the bar as a barre and it’s a sure-fire way to get free drinks. 

When Barnes gets back from buying Danvers an apology drink, leaving her watching suspiciously after him, he sits next to Peggy again. 

“Where’s Steve?” he asks.

“Late physio appointment. He’ll be here soon.”

“Danvers told me to stop fucking around.”

“Is that a fact?”

“And told me that if I did anything to hurt you or Steve, she’d break both my kneecaps.”

“She’s been spending too much time with Maria.”

By the time Steve arrives, Peggy’s hand is curled around Barnes’ thigh. 

+

“What about Natalia?” asks Steve. His lips are swollen and red.

“I hear she’s making time with Barton,” says Barnes.

“I thought he was seeing the director -”

“Coulson, yeah?”

“That’s the guy.”

“Well, you know ballet dancers.”

“I know two ballet dancers-”

+

When Barnes is being measured for his costume, he resists the urge to press his thighs together, to hide the bite marks sewn into his skin. He knows he can’t hope to hide the scratch-marks on his back

“And here I thought you were shameless,” murmurs Steve.

“And here I thought you weren’t a fucking cannibal, Rogers, Jesus.”

+

They work so fucking hard. It’s not just because Danvers is terrifying and Hill only marginally less so. It’s because they know what’s at stake here. This is the biggest production in which any of them have been involved and the revolution will be televised. 

+

Steve is, they say, the perfect prince. He is troubled and he is delicate and he is built like a brick shithouse. 

Barnes is, unexpectedly, a consummate and professional dancer. Oh, there’s an edge to him, dark mystery and sinful lips and when he stalks about the stage in black leather, Steve does not have to pretend. 

There is no world in which Peggy would put Barnes before Steve but she allows herself to be swept off her feet and she is an understated mother and Barnes says the wickedest things in her ears when they are onstage. 

+

They cannot tell, on Opening Night, who gets the loudest cheer.

Barnes kisses Steve’s cheek and Steve gives him one of the roses that was thrown onstage. 

(Well, I never- says Tony Stark, one of the Ballet’s patrons. Multiple bouquets are sent to multiple dressing rooms.)

+

They take the Tube home. There’s still a smear of black make-up on Barnes’ forehead. They sit, three abreast, in the train carriage. Peggy sneezes. 

“Hayfever,” she says. 

“What happens next?” Steve asks the empty carriage. His shoulders rock and nudge against Barnes’. 

“Danvers said, if I wanted - there’s a place for me to stay on as Principal Guest Artist.”

“Do it,” says Peggy, sounding sleepy on Steve’s other side. “But if you two start any more pissing contests, I’m leaving you both for Danvers and Hill.”

“They’re not-” says Barnes and then he realises that he’s speechless. 

“They are,” says Steve. He turns his head to press his lips to the top of Peggy’s head.

“But I thought opposites attracted,” says Barnes. 

“And they’re very much -”

“Not opposite?”

“Takes all sorts,” says Steve, sagely. Barnes tucks his face against Steve’s neck. 

+

“You’re staying, Buck, right?” Steve’s whisper comes in the dead of night.

“If you think I’m letting you dance _Onegin_ without me -”

“I’m not sure I’ve forgiven you yet, you know.”

“‘s okay, Steve. I’m not going anywhere.”

+

Barnes will learn that all flowers must be put in the second bedroom, where they won’t make Peggy’s eyes water. He’ll learn that Steve’s feet are still ticklish but that Peggy likes foot-rubs. They make her arch her legs and curl up, all at once. 

He’ll also learn that Carol Danvers is surprisingly accepting when Peggy’s pregnancy is announced. 

“As long as one of the pair of you is the father,” she says, “the Royal Ballet won’t want for a Principal in twenty years’ time.”

“It’s good to have long-term goals?” says Barnes. 

Steve looks as surprised at Danvers' good will as Barnes feels. (Apart from the bit where it seems that their unborn child has already been indentured to a life of dancing.) 

+

“Our kid’ll have two left feet, you’ll see.” 

(end)


End file.
